The Errors of Liberalism
Table of Contents
What is Liberalism?
When people think about liberalism today, what generally comes to mind in America is the Democratic Party.
In addition to that, you may also think of social justice warriors, feminists, Black Lives Matter, LGBT, and related movements.
But what is the actual definition of liberalism?
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, liberalism is:
“The most fundamental principle asserts an absolute and unrestrained freedom of thought, religion, conscience, creed, speech, press, and politics.”
Catholic Encyclopedia
So in other words, everybody is allowed to believe and say whatever they want, and nothing can get in the way.
Sound familiar?
Here in the United States, these rights are specified in The Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Ok, you say, but American freedom is why we are the greatest country in the history of all time, right!?
You Do You, and I’ll Do Me, and We Will Live In Harmony
So on the surface liberalism seems like a great idea.
Like most “great” ideas, it only falls short of expectations once you give it more than a minute’s thought.
Why?
First, the problem is that in liberalism (defined as above) everyone is essentially their own boss.
That’s right!
You get to be your own master!
You can choose what you believe, and nobody can tell you that you are not allowed to believe it!
If you want to believe that 1+1=3, that’s fine, as long as you don’t take away my right to self-identify as a sentient walking sausage.
And both of those are fine because I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe.
We are not hurting anybody, let alone messing with each other’s happy little bubble.
You’re Bad at Maff, and I am a Sausage, but What About Actual Issues?
Catholics can live next door to Protestants, who live next door to Jews, who live next door to Muslims, who live next door to Hindus, who live next door to Buddhists, and all the Wiccans and Satanists and Atheists are in between, and everyone lives together with absolutely no issues!!!
Never mind the fact that none of these groups of people can agree on anything that’s essentially important to the human experience.
Just as long as we buy into the dogma of Liberalism – that’s ultimately what’s important!
Can you see the problem yet?
Is it not clear?
Obviously, the problem with people with completely different (and starkly contradicting) values living together is that there will be little to no solidarity when it comes to building and maintaining a healthy and growing society.
For instance, if I believe that abortion is murder (and I do), and Jeff from accounting believes that all his weekend girlfriends have the right to choose abortion, so that he doesn’t have to be a responsible daddy, then how can we have solidarity on the “abortion question?”
Trick question.
We can’t.
What about the fact that as practicing Christians, my wife and I see homosexuality as a sin, and then Adam and Steve next door want the whole world to pay homage to their homosexual union?
What if both households want their community to share the same values as their respective households?
This would be impossible.
We literally have conflicting values.
Only one side can win.
One side has to lose.
Liberalism would make sense if we lived in a reality separated into our own distinct and special bubbles, but since we live in the real world – with each other – we must surround ourselves with likeminded people that share our values.
We Can Work It Out… Can’t We?
The best case scenario is that we learn to put our differences aside, by keeping our differences private, while trying to find common ground, in order to bring about the greater good for society.
That was the plan, it seems.
However, this will only work as long as a coalition of likeminded people doesn’t form in order to force society to submit to its collective values.
Unfortunately, in our liberal society this has happened.
A new liberal movement, the Progressive movement, has formed, and these “woke” people don’t care if you want to agree to disagree.
No.
They demand that you conform to their beliefs.
Moreover, if you openly refuse to conform, you will be harassed, bullied, doxed, fired, banned, and ultimately, canceled.
Liberalism Leads to Denying God
But what does the Catholic Church say about liberalism?
First, the Church says liberalism causes people to become their own “gods.”
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia:
By proclaiming man’s absolute autonomy in the intellectual, moral and social order, Liberalism denies, at least practically, God and supernatural religion. If carried out logically, it leads even to a theoretical denial of God, by putting deified mankind in place of God.
Catholic Encyclopedia
In other words, allowing everyone to be their own “god” leads to the objectively real God becoming unnecessary in the minds and hearts of the liberals.
In his encyclical criticizing liberalism, Libertas, Pope Leo XIII writes:
Hence, these followers of liberalism deny the existence of any divine authority to which obedience is due, and proclaim that every man is the law to himself; from which arises that ethical system which they style independent morality, and which, under the guise of liberty, exonerates man from any obedience to the commands of God, and substitutes a boundless license.
Libertas
Again, he is saying that every man becomes his own “god,” instead of giving himself in complete obedience to the True God.
Any professed Christian that assents to liberalism has essentially made themselves their own “god.”
The danger here is that if you are your own “god” then you will determine which of God’s moral rules are worth following.
And since man is fallen by nature, we will always choose to determine that our least favorite of God’s rules are incorrect.
Therefore, as a liberal you will eventually throw your own soul into Hell by chasing the liberties that God doesn’t allow because you think He is wrong and you are right.
Liberalism Destroys Society
So we have established that liberalism destroys the individual by making them replace God with themselves.
Likewise, liberalism also destroys society.
In his encyclical Mirari Vos, Pope Gregory XVI says of liberalism:
When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin … Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.
Mirari Vos
To sum up, if liberalism is followed, then people will ruin themselves and their society.
We see this with the modern new liberal progressives.
They are Hell-bent on destroying all reverence to God, Tradition and Christian morality.
And they do this all for the sake of the freedom to pursue their reprobate desires without resistance.
Legalizing abortion, homosexuality, fornication, no-fault divorce, porn, contraception, and a myriad of other reprobate “freedoms” has all but destroyed the nuclear family.
Also, it has lead to a nation of individuals pursuing self-interests instead of a nation pursuing the greater good.
Therefore, the destruction of Christian morality in pursuit of liberty has lead to the decline of Western Civilization.
Liberalism Harms the Church
Liberals within the Church harm the Church by trying to synthesize the moral boundaries within Catholicism to the unchecked freedoms of the fallen world.
Unfortunately, you cannot reconcile Christian morality to a morality that denies the role of God.
Christians believe that God is the author of morality.
This means there is objective unchanging Truth, or dogmas.
Liberals believe that every person has the right to decide which is true.
To a liberal, this means that all truth is subjective and subject to change with the times.
In the Syllabus of Pope St. Pius X Condemning the Errors of the Modernists, error 65 states:
Modern Catholicism can be reconciled with true science only if it is transformed into a non-dogmatic Christianity; that is to say, into a broad and liberal Protestantism.
Syllabus of Pope St. Pius X Condemning the Errors of the Modernists
The above hits on the crux of the problem of liberalism that has infected Christianity.
Namely, that liberalism seeks to reconcile Christianity with the world by saying the world is always right with its ever-changing dogmas and that the Church needs to change with the times.
To a liberal, this means that Christianity is not objectively true when it contradicts the world.
And since the world is liberal and all truths are subjective, then there is no objective truth to a liberal Christian.
In The Syllabus of Errors, Pope Blessed Pius IX writes as the 80th error:
The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.
The Syllabus of Errors
This means that not even the Pope should fall into compromising with the errors of liberalism.
The Church exists to protect the dogmas of God, not to overrule Him.
Just Say “No” to Liberalism
In conclusion, liberalism sounds good on paper, but it’s just not good in practice.
First, if everyone can do what they want, as long as they don’t hurt others, we don’t have solidarity in our society.
Second, new liberals want complete freedom to do what they want, and will take away your freedom to do so.
Third, liberalism destroys society by allowing people to pursue any and all degenerate ends, which is selfish.
Fourth, liberalism turns you into your own “god” instead of allowing you to give yourself completely to the actual God.
Fifth, liberalism harms the papacy and the Church because if all truth is subjective, then having a Pope and Church to protect and define the objective Truth is meaningless.
The first three three conclusions make life on Earth objectively worse.
The last two conclusions lead many souls to Hell.
Therefore, just say “No” to liberalism.